Writing progress update + mini-book review: Canadian Culinary Road Trip

This week in my spare time I read a book, made progress in a couple others, wrote a story synopsis and a poem, and got caught up on some video lectures for a class. More videos were just posted so I have to catch up all over again which negates my sense of accomplishment on that. Oh well.

In NaNo news I should be writing a lot more; throwing content toward my word count instead of here. The good news is that I am at least writing something. Hopefully the action will get the creativity flowing. With Daylight Saving Time ending tonight I’ll have one more hour in my day to make up the writing debt. Whether I remember to turn my clock back before I sleep is another issue. All those gentle reminders from several punctual and caring social media friends are helping that effort. Thanks, my friends.

As a “reward” for myself, I’ll post my full poem once I catch up on my word count.
LA Local wrimos
How’s your Nano novel coming along? There’s a write-in at the South Bay Pavilion’s Panera Breads on Sunday, Nov. 6, from 4:00PM – 7:00PM.

Here’s the first stanza as a teaser:

Picking Pumpkins

For rows and rows
 they stretch
Round in shape, some tall and lean
All shades of orange hues
Feeding anticipation of Novemberween
Wedged between corn husks that are
listing from side to side
A chilly breeze whips around
a truck bed fit for a hay ride…

More to come next time.

Mini-book review: Canadian Culinary Road Trip

Canadian Culinary Road Trip by Isabel Fonte

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I picked up this book a few years ago at a book fair and finally got around to re-reading this as I was looking for some new recipe ideas. This book is a virtual road trip with some wonderful photos of the Canadian landscape along with places of interest with regional recipes from across the country. I’ve tried a couple of the recipes and highly recommend the “cream of carrot soup” and the “rappie pie”- (a sort of Shepherd’s pie) dishes.

View all my reviews

Highlight of the week

Literally.

This week has been a rush, in a good way. I started reading a book series (Jeeves, by P.G. Wodehouse) capped the week by seeing Pirates of the Caribbean again, this time in IMAX 3D, and attended my first Angels game.

Angels vs. Braves

Today was a recovery/baking day. Tomorrow morning I am going on a hike and then doing something else fun in the afternoon.  To view more highlights, check my Flickr page.

Hope to have more visuals soon.

Social reading update + sites of the week

I joined Goodreads a few months ago to keep track of my reviews, other books I’ve read or wanted to read, and to keep tabs on what my peeps are reading. For months after I signed up I’ve only had one book listed. I received weekly e-mails saying (paraphrased), “*So-and-so* has read/added 3 books this week and you’ve added nothing of literary value.” Well, that may have been true but it wasn’t very fun to belong to a site that told me that I’m the least well-read out of my buddies week after week. So over the holiday I deleted my one book and unsubscribed from their stupid e-mail list I logged in and added some things I’ve read throughout the last year. There’s some actual content on my page now including a few reviews so hooray for that. My updated site can be found at goodreads.com/amadvox.

If 2010 was the year of working on my fitness, 2011 is the year of writing. I do plan to stick with the not so random feats of fitness and work in some 10K, variable distance triathlons and other fun. Now I’ll be more inclined to write about them. To make room for that I’ve moved my monthly desktop wallpaper feature to my tumblog because that platform is better to showcase images and other short posts, IMO. But the downside is that Tumblr has had a lot of downtime lately, which is why I’m staying put on WP for my other content.

This week I came across a few links of note.

1) 2011 Blue Print from Suze Orman A month-by-month Financial Planning Guide to improve finances this year.

2) FoodPress The WordPress destination for food blogs. Lots of time was spent here as soon as I clicked on it so I thought this one was worth passing along.

3) //dailypost.wordpress.com/ The site that kicked off my 2011 goal to post something every week. It’s not too late to join if you’re so inclined.

That’s all for now. Try not to get hit by any dead birds falling from the sky. Especially if you’re in the southern US or Sweden.

and now the reading list for March

good reads for the writer mind

Resolution: exercise more (creativity)

Though I want to say the novel is one of my favorite book formats, I don't recall reading a paper novel in years. I mentioned paper novel because my latest were read to me via audio books. That sounds crazy considering I attempt to write a novel every year for National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and my goal is to get them published and printed in paperback format. If I really write for myself (i.e. create stories that I'd like to read), then why do I want so badly to get my work put into a format I don't really consume?

I'd like to think it's not because I'm a vain person. Theoretically wouldn't it be the same to print my work as a .PDF and just make it available for download? After all, I'd still be getting my creative ideas out there, right?  Emotionally and financially, no. It's not the same. There's something special to being able to hold a physical copy of my book that's for sale either in a bookstore or online with fancy options like one business day delivery.

With this literary arsenal I feel more prepared to jump into the editing process for my novels, so that they may actually see the light of day. I'm over halfway through with and really liking the top book, How to Tell a Story by Peter Rubie and Gary Provost. It's very much like taking an intensive course on creative writing with plenty of examples of successful stories that we know from classic books, movies, and even screenplays.

I've got a lot to read this month but after digesting this knowledge base it'll be a lot easier to move forward in the creative writing process.

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